Russia accidentally dropped bombs on a residential area in its own territory near the Ukrainian border, multiple reports have claimed.
The alleged incident took place as Russian forces carried out strikes on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in the latest case of Moscow mistakenly hitting the border region of Belgorod.
Multiple sources, including Ukraine-aligned media and open-source intelligence accounts, reported that a Russian jet carrying guided glide bombs accidentally released the munitions on the Russian region.
Belgorod sits right at the border with Ukraine and has repeatedly suffered accidental friendly-fire attacks as the invasion of Ukraine went on.
According to former Ukrainian Interior Minister adviser Anton Gerashchenko, one of the guided bombs destined for Kharkiv “fell right on a residential sector and exploded.”
On Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky on said Russia had targeted its borders and dropped “almost 70 guided aerial bombs against our border communities and positions at the front.”
Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov confirmed there was an explosion in the area over the weekend that had injured five people.
Gladkov said there were no fatalities but that 30 homes and 10 cars were damaged as he refused to offer any additional information on the source of the explosion.
Russia has admitted to accidentally bombing its own territories, as well as parts of Ukraine claimed since the invasion, in the past.
In January, the Russian Defence Ministry said there had been an “abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition” over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region.
Days later, officials in the Luhansk region confirmed one of Russia‘s planes had released a FAB-250 bomb on the village of Rubizhne, in the Russian-occupied region.
And last year, a Russian warplane caused a massive explosion and large crater as it accidentally bombed the city of Belgorod.
Russia has stepped up attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in an attempt to pummel the region’s energy infrastructure and terrorize its 1.3 million residents.
Four people were wounded and a two-story civilian building was damaged and set ablaze overnight after Russian forces struck Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, with exploding drones, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday.
The four, including a 13-year-old, were hurt by falling debris, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian forces continued hitting Kharkiv and its surroundings on Saturday, according to updates posted by Syniehubov and other Ukrainian officials on the Telegram messenger app.
One strike hit a civilian business in an industrial district of the city, wounding at least six people, Syniehubov said.
